at 'school'

We turned a corner of the office into a mini little montessori-esque classroom for little miss Claire.  Aside from the whole bit about not wanting to be away from her peeps for several hours in a row, she kinda dug her brief stint at school.  At least I think she did.  She came away with some new songs and new ideas, asking about 'works', and asking more often about sounds and letters that she heard and saw.  I'm in no rush to introduce her to the world of academics, truly.  That will all come in time.  But seeing as how she was hungry for some work to do and asking so many interesting questions, I thought, why not create a little learning space just for her?  So here's a little peek at some of what we've been up to.  She sits at her little round wooden table in the corner of the office, two low shelves nearby filled with practical life/sensorial works: pouring, stringing, beading, folding cloths, sorting buttons by color, matching assorted bottles with their lids, practicing with chunky screws and screwdriver.... a number puzzle, sandpaper numbers and little glass counting beads, books, picture dominos, lots of art choices..... and her newest favorite, sandpaper numbers along with sound object boxes.  We choose some letters and after introducing her to the sounds that they make, I present her with a little box filled with objects that start with the letter sounds matching the ones we chose.  I hold them up, name them (emphasizing the beginning sound) and she puts them where they belong.  It's like a little game.  She walks around the house sometimes pointing to things and saying something like "b, b, bowl! put it in the "b" box!"  Which of course I cannot always do, because the boxes are small.  They are small, removable drawers from a hardware organizing bin that I found at Home Depot.

She loves her "classroom".